Chile's Pinera Elects New Directors to Codelco Board (Update1)

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean President Sebastian Pinera appointed former banking executive Gerardo Jofre as chairman of state-owned copper producer Codelco and backed a $15 billion investment plan for the company over the next five years.

Pinera chose Jofre, a former executive of Banco Santander SA and a director at Codelco to succeed Nicolas Majluf in a ceremony in Santiago today. He also chose three new directors to govern the world's largest copper producer.

Billionaire Pinera, who took office in March this year, is selecting professionals from Chile's private sector to revamp Codelco after copper output fell in four of the last five years on declining metal content in ore at its aging mines.

"We will support the company's investments plans of $15 billion the next five years, Codelco's biggest investment plan ever," Pinera said. He also said Codelco needs to continue exploring for new deposits in the South American country.

Jofre is a director at Deutsche Bank AG and Lan Airlines SA.

"Codelco is at a crossroads," Jofre said at the ceremony in Santiago. "We need to launch the new phase of Codelco."

Pinera elected Fernando Porcile, Juan Ossa and Andres Tagle to replace Majluf, Alberto Arenas and Andres Sanfuentes, who were chosen by former President Michelle Bachelet on Feb. 10.

The board also ratified Diego Hernandez, the former head of BHP Billiton Ltd.'s base metals division, to take over Codelco as chief executive officer starting May 19.